Buy New

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
or
Amazon Prime Free Trial required. Sign up when you check out. Learn More
Buy Used
Used - Very Good See details
$4.26 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Learning Maya 5: Dynamics
 
 
Tell the Publisher!
I'd like to read this book on Kindle

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Learning Maya 5: Dynamics [Paperback]

Alias Wavefront (Author), Alias (Author), Sybex (Author)
3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Price: $59.99 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Details
  Special Offers Available
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
Only 1 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).
Want it delivered Monday, January 30? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details
Textbook Student FREE Two-Day Shipping for Students. Learn more


Book Description

1894893425 978-1894893428 August 22, 2003
"This book will teach you what you need to know about Dynamics from an introductory level and will also allow you to explore advanced concepts in a comfortable format."
--Ian Cairns, Editor, MAYA Association

Learning Maya 5: Dynamics is your solution to creating stunning effects in Maya.

New for Maya 5!

If your animations don't follow the laws of physics, this book is the tool you've been looking for. You'll approach Maya Dynamics from an introductory level and explore advanced concepts in a comfortable format. You'll work with both Rigid and Soft Body dynamics, particle animation and rendering, emitters, and much more. Helpful step-by-step exercises guide you as you build smoke, dust, fire, and water. Maya's Dynamics engine will allow you to add realism to you animations and create realistic effects without having to go back to school. Learning Maya 5 | Dynamics will help you prove that you don't need to be a rocket scientist to make one fly!

Features:
Each chapter included a theoretical discussion to help you understand the concepts at play, as well as easy-to-follow step-by-step tutorials so that you can start working right away. This book also includes a DVD-ROM featuring chapter-by-chapter overviews offered by the book's writer, John Patton, an Alias|Wavefront(TM) Certified Instructor. Gain additional insight and assistance from these valuable bonus discussions.

With this book you will:
* Create and animate Rigid Body Objects.
* Create and animate particles using fields, goals, ramps and expressions.
* Render particles with hardware graphics and software techniques.
* Dynamically animate NURBS and polygonal surfaces using Soft Bodies.
* Instance geometry with particle motion.
* Use Rigid Body constraints sand Soft Body springs

And much more...

Special Offers and Product Promotions

  • Buy $50 in qualifying physical textbooks, get $5 in Amazon MP3 Credit. Here's how (restrictions apply)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If you’ve seen Star Wars: Episode I then you’ve seen Maya’s dynamics animation at work. "Dynamics" refers to Maya’s mathematical solutions for physics-based animation, such as the way objects collide (think crashing Pod Racers) or the way particles flow (fire, smoke, water, etc.). In Learning Maya 5: Dynamics, the authors explore all the ways Maya’s Dynamics can be used to create these effects without, well, going down in flames.

Part of the "Learning Maya" series, Dynamics covers the use of particles, rigid and soft bodies, hardware and software rendering, particle goals and other topics. Although aimed squarely at Maya artists with some experience, the book includes a CD with the necessary project files for anyone to load and dissect, as well as a DVD introducing features new to Maya 5.

Beginning with an exploration of rigid body dynamics, using the crashing of a bowling ball into 10 bowling pins as an example, the authors demonstrate many of the basic procedures used in building a dynamics system. The next chapter builds on the previous one by showing how to build a wind chime. Again, we have a simple example demonstrating an advanced technique. The wind chime uses the same forces of dynamics seen in the bowling ball example (the chimes crash into each other and bounce around) but we have an added layer of complexity in that the chimes hang by a string, and so are limited in their movement. Using a system of constraints, we learn how to restrict the movement of these virtual objects.

Subsequent chapters explore particles and their use in creating fire, smoke, sparkles, and even flocks of models like butterflies. Particles, constraints, and dynamics are used daily in commercial animation, but there are so many variables and different approaches it can often get confusing. Dynamics teaches, through example, how these system can be put to work and how to control them quickly and easily. --Mike Caputo

Review

"Allows you to make the most of Maya's Dynamics Tools ... [and] to explore advanced concepts in a comfortable format." -- Ian Cairns, Editor, MAYA Association

Product Details

  • Paperback: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Sybex (August 22, 2003)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1894893425
  • ISBN-13: 978-1894893428
  • Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.2 x 0.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,299,763 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

 

Customer Reviews

2 Reviews
5 star:    (0)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars A good start, October 1, 2004
This review is from: Learning Maya 5: Dynamics (Paperback)
A good start if your just learning Maya. Not everything you need to know about dynamics, but enough to push you in the right direction. As with all of the 'Learning Maya' series, you'll find that they are more tutorial based than other books. Unfortunatly, it lacks a lot of key definition and doesn't show many if any cross referances to the other Maya subsets.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars The only book that covers this topic, May 9, 2005
This review is from: Learning Maya 5: Dynamics (Paperback)
This book is pretty much the only printed source of information that goes over the Maya dynamics in enough details. In addition to the traditionnal coverage of particles and emitters, it includes *lots* of useful examples on rigid bodies, constraints, particle collisions, soft bodies, etc. I think it's the most straight-forward way to get up to speed with this type of effects in Maya.

One thing I really liked about this book, is how each topic is explained by example. Each example scene lasts 5 to 10 pages. This makes the book practical and motivating, since you can learn new techniques every few pages.

BTW, it looks like version 5 and 6 of the book have a very similar content. I'd recommend getting the (much cheaper) old version for people who want to save some money.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Only search this product's reviews



Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
This chapter introduces the fundamental tools and techniques required to achieve realistic "solid" collisions in Maya using rigid bodies. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
select the particle object, blobby particles, particle render type, following runtime expression, sampler info node, particle instancer, passive rigid body, particle collision event, rigid body nodes, rigid body object, emit function, emit command, hardware render buffer, hardware sprites, collision layer, active rigid body, lifespan mode, lifespan attribute, tangent speed, cloud shader, active rigid bodies, curve emitter, directional emitter, rigid body solver, goal smoothness
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Channel Box, Attribute Editor, Select Soft, Script Editor, Expression Editor, Particle Tool, Max Count, Inherit Factor, Make Collide, Affect Selected Object, Create Constraint, Graph Editor, Use the Outliner, Attribute Spread Sheet, Collision Event Editor, Create Passive Rigid Body, Create Springs, Blob Map, Normal Dir, Inherit Velocity, Select File, Bake Simulation, Create Soft Body, Cycle Step Size, Depth Sort
New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats
Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:



Tag this product

 (What's this?)
Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items.
Your tags: Add your first tag
 

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more

Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   
Related forums


Listmania!


Create a Listmania! list

So You'd Like to...


Create a guide


Look for Similar Items by Category


Look for Similar Items by Subject